'Gladiator' leads Oscars with 12 nominations

7:15 AM

BEVERLY HILLS - "Gladiator" ruled, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" pounced and "Erin Brockovich" got a Valentine's Day gift as the Oscar nominations were announced this morning (NZ time).

The Roman empire epic "Gladiator" scored the most Oscar nominations, with 12, including best picture, best actor for Russell Crowe and best director for Ridley Scott, while Ang Lee's Mandarin-language "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was second with 10, the most nominations a foreign language film has ever received.

"Crouching Tiger" won nominations for best picture and best foreign language film, marking only the third time a film has been nominated in both categories in the Oscars' 73-year history.

"Erin Brockovich," in which best actress nominee Julia Roberts portrays an environmental activist, and the drug war drama "Traffic" earned best picture nominations for director Steven Soderbergh.